


DbD: Morning Light

by Yhunoh



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death, Friendship, Gen, Sassy Philip #blame my bf, Survival, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-12-13 09:00:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11756436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yhunoh/pseuds/Yhunoh
Summary: The Entity‘s world was cruel. Haunted by merciless Killers and filled with survivors who struggled to escape, this world had it’s own rules. Everything was in perfect balance, until one bold group decides to take fate into their own hands. But as they gain their victory, one Killer has to suffer the consequences. In the end, breaking out of their chains, might have just been what this world needed.





	1. The beginning

A sickly greenish wasteland, filled with the corpses of cars. Huge walls surrounding the area, keeping in whatever is roaming this ghastly place. The sound of bells ringing, interrupting the deadly silence. An explosion, people running away, in sheer terror. Their clothes are bloodied, and caked with mud. Faces twisted in an expression of unspeakable fear.

All of this was nothing new for the Wraith. He forgot how many times he did this already. Sometimes old memories from his time as a human came to surface, but it has been a long time since he last has been faced by them. Now they mean nothing to him anymore, just bothersome things. In the beginning he tried resisting the entity, but eventually he complied, following it's orders. Resisting meant punishment and punishment was pain. Unimaginable pain.

The survivor, a male in his middle twenties was a moment too slow, not being able to vault over the window before he was grabbed by a bandaged hand. For a second, he was still able to maintain his hold, but it was useless. Eventually the Wraith hoisted him up his shoulder, making his way to one of the dozen hooks littering the area. It was quite annoying when the survivors struggled a lot, like this one. Didn't they understand that they would die anyway? Even if they got away and escaped from him, eventually another Killer will end them. Just to start everything anew. Sometimes he wondered how some of the survivors managed to resist the entity for so long, refusing to turn into one of the feared Killers.

In the end, it didn’t matter how long they clung on to their futile hope, one day the entity _will_ break them. It's just a matter of time, nothing more. There is no escape after all. Finally spotting a hook, he promptly hoisted the survivor onto it, maybe a bit more harshly than necessary. Satisfied with the result he went back to his usual routine of patrolling the generators. Till now, they only finished one. He highly doubted that this round of survivors would escape. They were pretty incompetent, probably new to all of this, though he did not feel sorry for them. After all, they were easy kills. And a lot of kills kept the entity satisfied. Less sacrifices meant punishment instead. Which he was used to already. Still, it was definitely not an enjoyable act.

_He was saved._ He froze in his tracks, going back to the hook. The Entity's strange growling still startled him, even after hearing it so many times. It was so… inhuman, he did not know how it was even able to communicate. He knew he wasn’t one to talk, as his days as a human being were long gone. Moaning near of him snapped him out of his thoughts. He soon found the wounded survivor, hiding in the high grass.

Amusing, how they believed themselves to be invisible, completely disregarding their vulnerability. He brutally slashed the male across his head, effectively knocking him out. It was easier when they were unconscious, less struggling and no screaming or begging for mercy. As if it was in his hands to decide over their life. He was nothing but a mere tool for the entity, simply executing it's orders. Not like he wanted to spare the survivors, he felt no pity towards them. After hooking the survivor, the entity immediately manifested and stabbed the still unconscious man viciously in his stomach. The pain made him regain his consciousness, but it was too late. Seconds later his soul was being transported into whatever place the entity takes them, before they start anew at the campfire. It was time to go for the others.

After patrolling the generators a few times he was still unable to find any traces of them. Growing frustrated he started his third round of patrolling, when the screams of crows distracted him. Following them, he soon came to a halt in front of one of the many closets which were randomly put all over the map. Unnoticed by him a slight smirk was visible on his face, as he opened the doors and grabbed the shocked woman by her throat. “Please, don't do this.” She was crying, her eyes red and glossy. He disregarded her pleading, carrying the sobbing woman to a hook. She was stupid enough to try and wiggle herself off the hook, wasting important lifetime by this. After he cloaked himself again he could hear the entity piercing through her frail body, accompanied by her screams. Only two survivors left, and they still had four generators to do. This was easy. Just in that moment a gen on the other end of the map was popped. He decided to dismiss it, and returned to his usual routine. Soon enough he was rewarded, as a young male fixed a generator, unknowing to the monster watching him.

After some time the Wraith decided he had seen enough, and promptly uncloaked himself behind the survivor. Before he was able to react, he was snagged by the ghost and carried away to the next hook. Only one more survivor to worry about. He spotted her, hiding behind a tree, trying to save the hooked man. Soon enough, all of them were dead. Darkness overtook him, bringing him back to the Killers resting place.

Even the cruel entity figured that tired and exhausted killers won't do any good, so it granted them a short time of peacefulness, before they were forced to kill once again. Their resting places consisted of the different areas, with each killer having their own territory. In Wraith’s case it was the Autohaven. He didn't especially favour this area, but he could live with it. After all he was able to switch to the places of the others, which he just did.

Soon enough, the familiar walls of the Asylum materialised in front of him. He was hoping to see Sally, the only Person he considered a friend in this realm. To his surprise, he met the heavily disfigured Killer, whom the Survivors called “Hillbilly” on the entrance of the mostly burnt down building. He pondered whether he should ask him what his business was in this place, or simply ignore him. The other man finally noticed him, but proceeded to stare at the stairs again. “What do you want here?” It came out harsher than necessary, his rusty voice just adding to it. The other man shifted awkwardly, obviously not used to others.

Finally he answered, though it was barely hearable . “Wanna see Sally.”

Well, that was certainly interesting. Sally was very favoured, by all of the Killers for her kind and wise nature. But he never saw this one at her place. Just as he was about to ask him what he needed from her, the ear screeching sound of Sally’s teleport sounded through the area. A moment later, she appeared in front of them, tilting her head in his direction. “Philip” she acknowledged him. He nodded towards her. Her posture changed and she turned towards the other man. “Billy” Her voice was soothing now “If you would come with me.”

With this she led the way, inside the building, Billy trotting after her. “Please wait outside, Philip!” she called to him. He was still unused to her calling him by his real name. After being referred to as the Wraith for such a long time, even he himself accepted the name. It was… strange hearing his human name again. But Sally insisted on calling everybody by their real names, just as she insisted on being called Sally.  


He decided to stroll through her land, taking in the different details. Sometimes the entity sent the Killers to different places, making hunting inevitably harder. He was sent to this map a few times already, but he still was quite unsure about the area. Once, he couldn't get a single kill because of this, and the entity was everything but pleased. To make things worse the survivors even played with him, apparently knowing about his confusion regarding the map. He met the same team of survivors later on again, this time managing to kill two of them. One guy who sabotaged his hooks and a athletic girl who used herself as bait. He had to admit though, they were a pretty good team. By talking with the other Killers he found out that they had had encounters with them too. Not only that, but they hardly managed to kill them. He wondered if they still had hope left or whether they already turned into Killers. Probably not. They were too strong, too determined to let that happen. Most importantly, they were a group. They saved each other, in contrary to most other survivors who spawn with random people, with whom they have never had contact before in their life. He wondered if the entity had plans for them.

He continued his exploration of the map, surprised by the amount of stuff he didn't notice before. He hoped that Sally would be finished soon with the other man, after all he didn't know how much time they had till their next match. He decided to enter the building, exploring it too. But when he went up the mostly broken stairs to the entrance he suddenly bumped into somebody. The disfigured man stood in front of him, apologising awkwardly. Annoyed the Wraith went past him, ignoring the other.

“Philip! I would have expected a better behaviour of you!” Sally’s angry voice startled him. He felt guilty, but that was stupid. He looked at the other man again, feeling even more guilt arise as he saw his sad face. “Apologise to him” Okay, now this was stupid. He felt like a kid in preschool, who had just quarreled with somebody and was forced to shake hands with that person by the teacher. Which was Sally. Oh dear Lord, that role really fit her. Still he turned towards to the other Killer, mumbling a quiet sorry. “What was that? That was barely hearable!” He rolled his eyes, this time apologising louder. Finally, Sally seemed satisfied with the result, bidding the other one goodbye.

“What did he want from you?” Sally faced him, sighing long. “Poor child was born heavily disfigured. Not only that but he has a bad skin condition which hurts him a lot. I try giving him some lotions to ease the pain and cure some of it.” Ohh. So that's it. Now he actually felt even worse for disregarding the other one before. It really shouldn't matter to him, but he couldn't shake off the guilt. “Is he better now?” Sally sighed and shook her head. “I can barely linder the pain and in order to actually help him I need real medication, not just the plants growing here.” “Will he be okay?” “He will be, but with constant pain. Oh. “What did you come here for?” He shrugged. “Just wanted to talk a bit with you.”

“I’m sorry, that I was harsh to you earlier” her voice was quiet. “No problem, I acted wrong anyway.” Suddenly the mist started to thicken and Philip felt himself fading away.

So it starts again, huh.

He barely had time to say farewell to the Nurse before he was thrown into a new area. Cornfields as far as he was able to see. A big house in rural style next to him. A realisation came into his mind. This was the Hillbilly’s area. The disfigured man he just met. He wondered if the entity had done this on purpose, and instantly agreed. It never did something random. He would bet his right arm that the other Killer was in his area right now. But he could not comprehend as to why this was useful for the entity. Oh well, not like he could do anything about it. He went past the first generator, noticing scratch marks on the ground.

Soon enough he found the owner of them. A petite blond woman ran into the cornfields. A slightly familiar feeling rose in him as he saw her. He had a feeling as if he should know her. He followed her, catching up fast. Without any pallets to stop him, he was able to down her quite easily. Just as he picked her up, a bright light was shining onto his eyes, blinding him in the progress. He lost hold of his captive and shielded his eyes while hitting into the air with the other. Suddenly he felt somebody grabbing his weapon, yanking it out of his weak grasp. Something went horribly wrong. This was supposed to be another easy match, without any problems. Especially not with survivors attacking the Killer.

Abruptly he remembered the woman. She belonged to the group he had encountered before already, the ones who taunted him. Anger overtook him. Anger and a feeling of helplessness. If he let them have the upper hand over him, the entity would severely punish him. No mercy will await him, only tremendous pain. The flickering points in his vision vanished gradually, allowing him to see again. In front of him stood a dark skinned woman, holding the cursed flashlight in her hand. Realising that he was able to see, she immediately tried flashing him again, but he would have none of that. He shielded his eyes again, trying to grab a hold of the woman. The next moment pain hit him like a lightning. He lost his balance, barely managing to keep standing. Another hit and he was down. In the corner of his blackened vision he saw the male who had sabotaged his hooks in a former match, throwing down a rather large rock with some of his blood on it. He thought he heard them say something but he couldn't make out the words. There was only one thought going through his head, as his world shifted and turned into black.

_I failed._


	2. New Friends & Old Foes

Everything was dark. He could feel something covering his eyes and heard somebody next to him talking. “...still unconscious?” “Yes, no worries, we bound him up anyway, there is no way for him to be able and escape.” First voice was female, rather light and quiet. Second male, more confidence. He decided to stay still, listening to what they had to say. A new voice chimed into the conversation.

  


“I have absolutely no clue what you nutjobs want from that monster. He probably isn't even sentient.” A tad bit of anger rose but he extinguished it. “That's not true,” the quiet female spoke up. “You forgot about the diary we found? It says that every Killer was once human, forced to comply to the Entity's will.” The other one answered, sounding impatient. “Yes, but it also says that the entity favours Killers who had already murdered somebody. We don't know whether he was once a survivor or a murderer. Hell, we know nothing about him!”

  


He shifted a bit, noticing that his arms were bound back with heavy chains behind him, to what appeared to be a tree. His legs were bound too, ropes cutting into them. “I think he just moved” the man shouted out. Philip cursed inwardly. Why has he have to have that much bad luck. Even though it all started out so well. Footsteps came to a halt in front of him, the bind being snatched roughly from his eyes. He snarled at the blonde woman who was standing there. Lights flickered through his vision, forcing him to close them for a moment.

  


“Well, well, well, who do we have here. It's our mighty Killer Wraith, all bound up here. Don't think the Entity will be so pleased about this.” Her voice was filled with malice. Shortly he considered her to make quite a good Killer herself. He dismissed it again. He wondered if she was angry about him sacrificing her. Didn't she understand that this was normal? She was a survivor, she had the words “Sacrificial lamb” written all over her.

“You know if I had any saying in this I would have killed you already, mudface.” She spat out. “Meg this is enough.” A soothing voice called out, reminding him of Sally. He hoped that she was okay, or at least in a better situation than him. A dark skinned woman led the angry woman away from him, keeping an arm around her in a reassuring manner. The man, wearing glasses and dirty formal clothes glanced at him. “Hey.”

  


Philip stared at him dumbstruck. The other one kneaded his hand, a nervous look crossing his face. “We never asked you what your name is.” Wraith looked at him a second longer, just to be sure that the he felt uncomfortable. “Wraith.” His voice was raspy. “But this isn't your real name. You must have had an actual one!” Now he gained confidence, his eyes shining with it.

Philip debated over his options before giving in. The man would annoy him about it anyway, and it was not an important fact anyway. “It's Philip. Philip Ojomo.” “My name is Dwight Fairfield.” He sounded like a kid at a birthday party. “I'm sorry for Meg's behaviour. She is still mad that you sacrificed her in a former trial. I can fully understand that, to be honest. Of course, none of us likes being murdered. Why do you even keep killing us? What did we ever do?” His voice was filled with hurt. Philip finally understood where the phrase “Like a kicked puppy” came from. Definitely originated from this guy here. Even he felt a bit of remorse looking at the other.

  


“We must. The Entity's orders are absolute.”

That's right, he can't do anything about it. Even if he was consumed by guilt it won't change anything other than hurting him. “But you must be able to fight back! I'm sure if all of us would hold together we will be able to defeat the entity!” His body shook with excitement, eyes nearly sparkling. Just barely Philip managed to stifle his laugh. But it was just too rich. Hold together? Defeat the entity? Holy shit, did this guy think they were in some sort of Superhero movie? Just how can an adult person be this hopelessly naive? The man looked at him, hurt shining in his eyes, apparently having heard his muffled laughter. “I know what you think. I know what the others think. This is crazy, this will never work, just grow up and accept reality. But I won't.”

  


He stopped, fingers started fidgeting. “So many times I simply gave up. Listened to what others said. Believing them. But I won't do this anymore. Even if nobody believes me, even if we die a thousand times… I still believe that we will be free. All of us. We can defeat it, if we just help each other!” In the end his voice grew more and more in confidence, as well as in volume. Philip stared at the other guy, Dwight was his name right? In all these years he has been here, he never met a person like him. Sure, some determined individuals always pop up somewhere, but usually they give up pretty fast, surrendering to hopelessness. But this man… he was different. He was not one to give up, despite his weak appearance. He was impressed, much to his own dismay.

  


“Dwight, I know how much you want to believe into the good in everyone, but this thing is a monster. It won't help us. Heck we should just kill it, give it back some of the pain it gave us, like Meg said. Payback right?”

  


Philip strained his neck to catch a glimpse at the person talking from behind him. Finally she stepped into his field of view. It was a pretty beaten up looking woman, with the appearance of a punk. She crouched down in front of him, hands casually resting on her legs. “Hey, you! I dunno why Dwight wants to be all friendly friend with you, but lemme tell you this. I sure as hell ain't gonna be your friend and neither will Meg. Got me?” She scoffed. “We should just bash your shitty skull in, or something along that lines. If it weren't for lil Dwightey here, believe me, you would be in a hella lot of pain.” Philip inwardly groaned. Great, another person here who hated his guts. Why did they even went through the trouble of doing all of this, if everyone except Dwight wanted to see him dead anyway?

  


“Leave it Nea. We didn't tie him up just to kill him. And we are not like them. We will not act like the entity expects us to.” Calm, collected voice. Male. And apparently one of the few with a brain here. “This whole thing is fuckin bullshit! What are we even trying to achieve here!”

  


_That's what I would like to know too._ Philip rolled his eyes, “Stop doing that!”

What, he?

The girl- Nea - stomped over to him, harshly grabbing his head and forcing him to look at her. “You think this is funny don't you? That this is all just a game and we are the toys. Well guess what, we ain't. Are ya gonna laugh when I'm gonna shove your own weapon down your throat? Cuz I know, I will be laughing. I will be laughing a shitton, you fucking monster!”

  


Wow. That was… unexpected, to say the least.

Sure, Philip was no Idiot, he figured that the survivors wouldn't like the Killers all too much. But this? This was pure, unaltered rage. It was nothing like he ever experienced from any survivor. And he had met his fair share of them, after spending years in this godforsaken place. This group of survivors just didn’t stop surprising him. First Dwight with his passion, and now this Nea with her aggression. Well, the first one was certainly better, but again, both of them were unique in their field. “Nea, calm down, please. This is not what we will do. I know that you are mad, but get a hold of yourself, will you?”

  


The other male seemed to be quite used to taming this Nea woman apparently. He finally stepped into Philips view, and without much of a surprise he noticed that it was the saboteur. He slightly hated this person, considering how many hooks he destroyed right in front of his eyes. The Entity had always punished him severly after these matches because he barely made a kill. The only positive thing was, that he nearly never encountered this group. Till yet. And if he ever gets away from this place, hell will await him. He shuddered at the thought of it.

  


“Dwight, do you really think that he will help us?” The man spoke. Dwight fiddled with his fingers again, showing how nervous he was. But when he spoke his voice vibrated with confidence. “I'm sure of it. We know that the entity tortured the Killers too in order to break their resistance. They are not the ones to blame. They just do their job in a way.”

  


“That's a pretty shitty job” Nea growled. Dwight nodded. “It is, but you have to see it from their point of view.” “See what from their point of view? That they kill innocent people and sacrifice virgins to some demon or whatever it is? Oh sure, I always do that in my free time. Not.”

  


Philip nearly rolled his eyes again at this. It's not like he was doing this for the fun of it. Of course there were killers who loved it, but those were sadistic bastards, like the new guy who arrived a short time ago… creepy guy with a doctors outfit and a maniacal grin. He definitely didn't want to get too close to that one. Everything about him screamed dangerous.

  


“How about we just ask him ourselves? Why he does what he does, and if he would help us” the older male spoke up. Philip wondered how many times the entity will impale him if he told them anything. On the other hand he was already fucked anyway. The entity will probably completely destroy his personality and the rest of his humanity the moment he got out of here. It could do it now, but he suspected that it was too weak to interfere in this realm physically. No, the entity tortured the mind. And right now it had no access to it, because it was blocking itself by sending him into a trial. At least one good thing.

  


“Do you want to answer that?”

It took him a short moment to realise that Dwight was talking to him. He shrugged and then nodded.

“We are doing all of this because the Entity forces us to. Not all of us are sadistic bastards who enjoy killing. Some of us had a family. Friends. Even lovers. But then they either got dragged here as survivors or they managed to screw up so badly that it noticed them. Some of us were and are actually really nice people. But then shit happened and they ended up here.”

He shrugged.

“Of course we all will still kill you. Disobedience means punishment after all, and I think you know who of us decided to stand up against the entity.”

  


He saw it in the way they froze, thinking of the only monster who was a living proof of what happens if you decide to be disobedient. After all, there were not many people who had hooks driven through their shoulder.

“And there is no way that you can go against the entity?” Dwight asked wide-eyed. Philip felt slightly sorry for destroying his dream but it had to be done. Some things are simply not realistic, as sad as it may be.

“No. I feel no need to be the second living warning of what will happen if you decide to screw with the entity. If you want to, you can continue dreaming but leave me out of it.”

  


Nea patted Dwight’s shoulder who appeared to be devastated about the news. “Say, in which category do you belong? Were you a Killer before all of this already or are you just another victim of the Entity?” Philip turned to the direction the voice came from. The person who spoke turned out to be the saboteur. “I'm Jake by the way.” Philip grinned darkly. “Philip. Nice to meet you. And to answer your question… _This is none of your business, sacrificial lamb.”_

  


“What the _fuck_!” A female voice shouted. A specific female voice actually. Philip felt the desire to bang his head against the tree. The braided woman from earlier was back. Sadly. “I told you guys not to trust him! I bet he was a murderer before all of this already! Fuck, we should kill him before it's too late!” Jake threw his hands into the air, obviously just as annoyed by the young woman's behaviour.

  


“I told you Meg, as I also told Nea, we will _not_ kill him. We are better than that. Can we all just calm down, and stop trying to get each others throats?” “Well, we would, but then Wraith-boy here decided to make one on scary killer.” Nea retorted, shooting a dirty glance to Philip. “Guys, call him Philip alright? He is a friend, right?” Dwight really was too good for this world. And for the entity. Those puppy eyes must be from another planet.

  


Philip decided to look onto the ground, for no reason at all. He definitely didn't experience a bad case of bad conscience. “Dwight, as much as we all would love to live in the kind of perfect pink flower world that you are living in, some of us have to accept reality. And that reality is, that not every killer that turned into a monster wants to be your best friend and play tag with you or eat cake.”

  


Ouch. He didn't expect that from the blonde woman - Meg. And one look at Dwight told him that it hit him hard too. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, reminding him of a goldfish before he closed it completely. His eyes were slightly glossy, the tell-tale sign of somebody who was about to cry. Meg seemed to realise that too as she started to apologise quickly, when Jake suddenly pushed past her, bumping into her arm rather roughly.

  


She looked as she was about to protest, but stopped when she saw how Jake hugged Dwight gently, who had started to sob quietly. Nea stood next to him, looking quite uncomfortable, but after a short time she went over to the crying man and carefully patted his shoulder, still unsure what to do with herself. “What is going on here?” The dark skinned woman, whose voice reminded him so much of Sally, appeared between two trees, a look of worry and concern on her face.

Seeing Dwight’s state, she immediately ran over to him and took over for Jake to console him. Finally Dwight seemed to calm down, and his sobbing ceased to the point of silence. _Very_ awkward silence.

  


The dark skinned, fragile woman turned around, stemming her hands into her hips and an angry look on her face. Suddenly she didn't look so fragile anymore. “Who was responsible for this?” Everybody glanced to Meg, who appeared to be flustered, her face flushed red. “Meg, I really would have expected different from you.” Her voice lacked the angry expression she wore. Instead it sounded disappointed and sad. Meg looked to the ground, her hands fiddling and she drew circles into the brown earth with her shoe.

  


“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that, Dwight.” “It's okay Meg. I get it, we are all stressed. I'm not asking you to be best friends with him-” “Rather hell freezes than that” Meg muttered under her breath, but stopped when Claudette shook her head. “But I'm just asking you to give him a chance. Everybody deserves one.” Meg sighed, closing her eyes. “Okay. I will give him one chance. But if he fucks it up, nothing on this earth will keep me from sticking his head onto a hook.” Dwight smiled, obviously satisfied. “Great! What do you say, Nea?”

  


“I'm okay with it, I guess.” Her voice was indifferent, same as her mimic. Finally Dwight looked at Philip, smile still on his face. “Can you live with that?” Philip sighed. “I can, but what you guys are doing is useless. I won't help you. I would love to say that I'm sorry, but honestly, I'm not. The Entity will already punish me worse enough without me helping you guys.” It seemed as if the temperature dropped a few degree after he spoke. He could by tell the look on their faces. They were disappointed. Especially Dwight, who had just recovered, slumped together again.

  


Finally Jake spoke up. “I think it would be the best if we just finish the generators, open the gates and escape. He won't help us, that much is clear.” As he saw Dwight’s sunken form he quickly added “But we can try it with another Killer. Maybe there is one who is not such a coward as this one.” Philip felt his glare on him but he honestly didn't care. He also highly doubted that they would really try and immobilise another Killer. If his suspicion was correct (and it was) he only added this part in order to cheer up his friend. Who seemed to have regained some strength.

  


Dwight stood up from the branch he has been sitting on and walked over to him. As he was face to face with him he began to speak, his expression showing how serious this was to him. “Please, I ask you again. Do you want to join us to try and defeat the entity? Or do you prefer to hide and bow to it's will, just doing whatever it orders you to do? You were human once too. And I know that you still are. If we don't go against the entity it will never be defeated!”

  


Philip shook his head. He agreed with Dwight, to a certain extent. But he was still a Killer and they were survivors. He was in a way already part of the entity. It had control over him, unlike with the survivors. They were still free to take at least some own decisions. But if he wasn't an obedient lapdog to the entity, then hell awaited him. Which reminded him of his beautiful fantasies of the entity burning in said hell. Those fantasies were the only nice thing in this world.

  


Why did this have to be so complicated? He was acting like a scaredy cat, just like the saboteur said. Maybe, if he helped them, they could actually escape? Was it really worth a try?

Dwight seemed to notice his internal struggle as he just proceeded to walk back to the branch, leaving the Wraith to decide for his own fate.

  


But he just couldn't think of what to do! The survivors were getting impatient, awaiting his decision eagerly. At least he thought that they were, especially after the woman called Meg started to curse loudly, then proceeding to run off into the fields with lightning speed, after a few minutes (hours) of him brooding. He finally came to a decision. Meg was back too, apparently calmer after being able to release her pent up energy.

  


“I won't help you with your rebellion against the entity. But I will let you go if I meet you again in a trial. Sounds fair?” Apparently not, if the angry looks on Nea’s and Meg's faces were any indicator. Claudette seemed disappointed again and Jake unhappy. But Dwight just shrugged, already expecting this. “At least he will help us in a trial. Thank you.” Jake turned around, telling the group to start repairing the generators. Soon they all spread out, back into their usual routine.

  


  


  


  


Philip was _still_ chained to a tree. He really forgot about this small fact during everything that happened but… he has been chained to a tree for like the past five hours. Or it would be something like that if time existed in the Entity's realm. He wanted to _move_. He sighed. Looks like he will stay here till they finally make their escape. This was so boring. He looked into the sky, head leaning onto the tree. Still the same old yellow sky. Seriously, how did the entity get the ridiculous idea that a sky should be yellow? Or green, for his area. _We aren’t living underwater for hell’s sake._ But it was the Entity's world. It didn't care for details or realism. As long as it got stronger it was fine. No matter what that meant for all it's victims. As long as it got its daily supply of souls it was satisfied. As satisfied as a giant weird tentacle spider legs thing could be, that is.

  


He really wanted it to be done at this point. There was no doubt that the moment the trial ended he would be punished. And honestly, the time he spent waiting for it to happen was the worst. He hated it. He was scared. He didn't want to get punished. He could have helped the survivors but he was just too goddamn scared. He felt bad, sure, but the Entity was horrible. He just didn't want to risk his life. Or his sanity. Whatever which was still left. Finally, after an eternity of waiting (it wasn't even half an hour, but Philip always tended to be on the impatient side) all of the generators were finished. He saw Dwight walking towards him from the distance. As he was close, he was able to see the unhappy look on the man’s face. “I wish it would have been different.” He sighed. “But that doesn't mean I will give up. It is a throwback, but not a loss. Things will change, I promise you that.”

“Dwight! Are you coming or you wanna stay here?” The annoying braided girl shouted, waving her hands. Why was she so hyperactive anyway? Philip never understood those people. “Well, looks like I gotta go.” He smiled shyly. “See you.” He waved (what's with all the waving even) and turned around, walking to the exit gate. Philip leaned his head back to the tree. It was time. He was sort of curious which punishment the entity would provide for him. At least he knew one thing for sure. It won't be pleasant. Not at all. He closed his eyes. Even so, he was able to tell when the abandoned area of the Coldwind Farm vanished and got replaced with darkness.

The Entity was not pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my story!


	3. Breaking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains graphic violence, so if you don't like this, better skip the beginning. Other than that, thanks for the Kudos and for reading my story :)

Philip opened his eyes. Everything was dark, except the spidery like things in front of him. They were glowing in yellow and red colors, making them look like a work of art. Very malicious art. He shuddered.

 

_Kneel._

 

Again the ugly, growling sound, so disgustingly inhuman. He hated it. But he obeyed. His eyes were cast down, to the darkness beneath him. There were no walls, no floor, nothing. Just darkness, him and the monster in front of him.

 

_You disappointed me._

 

“I'm sorry” he mumbled. Fear overtook him. _You cooperated with the sacrifices. It seems like you are unsatisfied with your current role in this game. I shall fulfill your wish then._

 

It's “voice” sounded….amused? Before he was able to ponder about this any longer, he was stabbed into his abdomen. He expected it, but nothing could prepare him for the pain. He closed his eyes again, waiting for his death. His stomach was stabbed. Again. And again. He gazed down onto his body, and nearly puked.

 

There was a big hole in the middle of his torso, blood gushing out of it and… were those organs?His thoughts were interrupted when he felt something tearing into the flesh of his legs. Then his arms. Slowly, the entity applied more pressure. At first he didn’t understand what it’s goal was. But as it’s appendages started to pull onto his limbs, a horrible realization dawned upon him. And when they were ripped off, blood spraying out of the stumps, he finally opened his mouth and screamed.

 

Tears fell down his face, and he screamed. He fell onto the floor, onto the darkness, unable to stand, unable to move, his body drowning in pain. But he didn't die. It didn't end. He was torn apart, he was shredded to pieces.

 

But he just didn't die.

 

At some point he lost consciousness, just to regain it a second later. The entity allowed no relieve. He screamed and his throat got pierced. Blood pooled into his mouth, blocking his airways. He couldn't breathe.

 

But he didn't die.

 

His tears continued to fall and his eyes were gouged out. It teared through his skull. He wondered if his brain would fall out. Finally it seemed satisfied, seeing his shattered body. If he could beg, he would have done it. He just wanted it to end. The pain was unbearable. He felt the Entity touching his skull, putting pressure on it. Slowly it started to crush it.

 

 _It hurt._ Maybe it would be done soon. He tried speaking but the blood blocked him. It still seemed to notice his intentions though, as it ripped out his tongue. He cried blood. His skull was crushed. He felt more blood and parts of his brain spilling out, running down his face. With a final, sickening crack, it was over.

 

His consciousness faded.

 

Nothing brought him back.

 

It was done.

 

_Game over for the Wraith._

 

 

 

 

 _Am I dead?_ He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't see...or? There was a light. At first it was just a small dot, not much more than the beam of a flashlight. _So is this the afterlife? A lightpoint?_ He was slightly disappointed.

 

At least his body didn’t hurt anymore. He promptly realized the reason for this. He simply had no body anymore. He wasn’t able to move his head or arms because there was just nothing. _Of course,_ he thought bitterly. The Entity had done a good job on him. There was nothing left because it had destroyed all of it. He wished he could have died in some kind of epic battle at least. But instead, he was slaughtered by a tentacle monster during licking it's ass.

 

Not in the literal sense of course.

His mother would scold him for his language. _Why am I thinking of her now?_ Philip wondered if this was the thing where you let your life pass over in front of your eyes. But shouldn't that have happened when he died earlier?

 

In all honesty he didn’t care anymore. He missed his parents. He wished he could go back again, and fix it, fix everything. Somehow. He didn’t want things to end like this between them. Not after all they had done for him. But he was a coward.

 

Philip just wanted to apologize, for leaving them. God, he had been so stupid. He ran away, and there was no excuse for it. Thinking his father would somehow, through magic be fine again. He just couldn't stand seeing him like this. So broken. But was he really? Philip didn’t know anymore, all he knew was, that he wanted to make up for everything he did to them.

 

His mother was probably worried sick. Maybe… maybe they were dead already. His dad hadn’t been very well when he left, _which was exactly the reason why he left. Because he had always been a coward._ He wanted to see them again so badly. But maybe it was actually better like this. They were fine. Surely.

 

It didn’t matter anymore.

 

 

After all these years he felt human again. Maybe dying wasn't so bad after all. At least it freed him from the entity. He actually felt at...peace. Who cares if he put up a fight for the entity or not? What counts is that it was over. Another thing he regretted was that Sally would still be forced to roam this horrible world. She didn't deserve this fate.

 

All she ever does is to help others. He knew how much it tore her apart _tore him apart_ to be forced to hurt others. The entity was so cruel to make her be able and see the auras of people being healed. But instead of helping them, she had to hunt them, kill them. And all of this just because she made a mistake in her former life. Philip didn't know what she did, she never told anyone. But it was hurting her and she regretted it everyday.

 

Sally once told him that she was the one who deserved to be stuck in here the most. Who deserved to endure this pain. He denied it, but in the end he couldn't change her mind. _I am a monster_ she had told him. It wasn't true. She was far from being a monster, no matter what deeds she had done before she got chosen by the entity.

 

Still, he couldn't think too much on it. He felt tired. Everything was fine now. It got lighter too. He wondered if it was the morning sun. _Wait, there shouldn't be a sun_. His previously relaxed thoughts got jumbled. The light took up more and more space. The darkness was slowly replaced by it, the light getting brighter and brighter until it was painful to look at it. He wanted to close his eyes, because it _hurt again_. But he still couldn't feel his body, his entire existence seemingly vanished, even though his eyes _hurt._

 

More and more it surrounded him, his being, going through him as if he was nothing but a mere bundle of thoughts with no body, no physical form, simply nothing. _Stop_ _it._ Finally, when he was fully consumed by it, _when he was just a bundle of broken bones and blood,_ he felt his body once again.

 

It started with his torso, _where the entity had pierced through him._ He felt as if he was slowly regenerating. When it was done with his torso, it moved on to his _cut off_ limbs. Soon he was able to flex his fingers, and bend his legs. Lastly it reached his head, restoring at first his _gouged out_ eyes and then his ears. Finally, it was finished. His body was back.

 

But still, something was off. He knew it the moment his body was restored. He was nearly scared to open his eyes, to see what damage the entity had done to him. But he knew that it was useless to drag it out any longer. If he didn't want to spend eternity like this, he had to accept whatever the entity did to him.

 

Not only that, but the moment he was able to hear again, he heard muffled voices somewhere close to him. He wasn't able to make out any details of their conversation, as his ears were ringing and a feeling close to a migraine tortured his head, but he knew one thing: He was enormously vulnerable like this, and he didn’t want to risk anything by being a coward and refusing to accept his fate.

 

Slowly he opened his eyes. There was a campfire in front of him, with people sitting around it. When they noticed that he started to move, they jumped up and ran to him, shouting words he could not comprehend yet. It seemed as if they had been watching him though, waiting for him to wake up. They seemed familiar. And like a lightning it hit him. They were the survivors from before!

 

 

 

The man with the glasses, Dwight was his name, arrived first at his side. He gently shook him, eyes filled with worry. Soon other faces appeared in his sight, belonging to the rest of his group. He felt somebody lifting up his head a bit, probably in order to prevent him from suffocating. Philip was glad for that, as he didn't fully trust his body. He tried speaking, but the moment he formed his first word his throat started burning. He began to cough, which worsened the burning sensation and felt panic creeping up on him. Breathing got harder and he silently thanked whoever lifted up his head.

 

“Water! He needs water!” He heard Dwight shouting. “Well, where the fuck are we supposed to get it from? There is no water in this shitty place!” It was an angry retort and he immediately thought of the two women, who could definitely use some anger management classes.

 

“Wait, I will get some herbs” a calmer voice said. He heard somebody walking past him, a dry stick cracking as she went over it. Shortly after she returned, carefully putting some kind of leaves into his mouth. The moment they touched his mouth they seemed to vanish, but it had the same effect as if he had just drank a glass of water, his burning throat finally soothed. This was nothing surprising to him, even though he never tried any of the herbs growing in the Entity's realm. But there were so many strange things going on here, that he stopped questioning the events after some time and just accepted it the way it was: An unnatural, strange and ugly realm, made to torture the poor souls trapped in here.

 

He heard somebody asking him how he was feeling, but he found himself unable to answer. His body seemed devoid of all energy, and his eyes refused to stay open. Black surrounded him again, and even though he knew that he was safe for now, as the entity had punished him already and was probably busy with some other poor fool, he couldn't help but feel his fear growing, the darker his sight got. It just reminded him too much of the darkness during and before his punishment that he could feel content. Before he had time to think of it any more, his consciousness faded, instilling a deep sense of panic in him.

 

When he woke up, his body felt like it got hit by a truck. Though that would have been less painful than the Entity's punishment. He tried sitting up, wincing at his sore muscles. At least they felt sore. He faintly remembered the survivors gathering around him, _helping him?_ Right now, the Campfire was completely deserted. This wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be at the Campfire. This was the survivor's area. He should be back at the Autohaven or maybe even in a trial. But not here!

 

Something was terribly wrong. His body still felt different. He looked down onto himself, for the first time since he awoke here. He was still wearing his usual clothes, but something was off. Then he noticed it. A little part of his skin was visible and it wasn't a sickish dark grey tone. Instead it was normal, human skin. Like he had had a long time ago. Times which he thought would never return.

 

He felt dizzy, the shock about his discovery wearing onto him. With shaking hands he proceeded to rip off some of the bandages on his hand. He wasn't mistaken. It was his skin. Very light, apparently from years away from the sunlight. But still… he was a human once again. Philip didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

 

He remembered the Entity's words, still ringing in his ears. It said he was unsatisfied with his current role… in this game? So it really was just that for it. He laughed bitterly. All the pain, the cries, the deaths and despair, just so some fucked up thing had it's fun and got stronger. But as horrible as this was, the other thing it said disturbed him way more. With his role it probably meant his being as a Killer. So, it disqualified him from being a Killer? And the only other possible role in this fucked up game was to be a survivor. That, together with his apparently human form meant that he was a survivor?

 

He hardly could believe it. Maybe he was wrong, and it had all just been a dream. It would be better than this. He didn’t want to be a freaking survivor, for hell’s sake. Since he was tossed into this never ending nightmare, he always had been a Killer. He could not survive in this realm, that was for sure. He thought about going back to sleep, but something about the darkness, _the entity_ , made him scared. No, he preferred staying awake. Suddenly voices reached his ears once again. The same group of survivors appeared in the distant fog, jogging calmly to the campfire. He eyed them curiously. They did not appear to be injured. Maybe they went up against an inexperienced Killer?

 

On the other hand, they got the best of him too, and he had been in the fog for years. He felt their stares on him, even from the distance. They were probably chatting about him, how he came here. Why he was here. He did not feel like answering any of their questions. But when they reached the Campfire they surprised him. Instead of doing the obvious, and asking him about how he ended up here, or what had happened to him, Dwight just wanted to know how he was feeling and even the two Satan spawns didn’t want to kill him. That was actually quite shocking for him. He wondered if he looked that bad, that they took pity on him. But they just continued chatting with each other, sometimes checking up on him, to see how he was feeling.

 

“Why are they not asking me anything?” He nearly hit himself when he saw them looking at him, realizing that he had spoken out his thoughts loudly. “You might be a Killer, but we aren’t completely insensitive assholes. We figured that we would just wait till you said something.” The braided girl spoke up, looking slightly smug. Of course. He should have known. He resisted the urge to hit himself again for his stupidity. “Ask away. You want to do that anyway I guess.” Dwight shot Meg a warning look, when she attempted to speak up, hands in her hips. She ignored it.

 

Ever since the former Killer had appeared at the campfire, she and her friends had wanted to question him about this. “Why are you here?” Philip sighed. “Because the Entity decided to reward me by sending me to the campfire.” She looked dumbstruck. “Really?” He laughed “Of course not. I know you are more brawn than brain, but I still expected you to know that the entity punished me.”

 

She glared angrily at him, her hands clenching to fists. “Meg, don't.” She turned her back onto him and to her friend now, the saboteur guy. He wondered if she was gonna start a fight with him. He would root for her. If she ever got of out of here, she should participate in a boxing fight. Great way to unleash aggressions he had heard. “He started it!” She shouted, pointing a finger at him. “And we are back to the child mode” he mumbled quietly. Apparently not quietly enough because she screamed again “See, Jake? It's his fault!”

 

Jake did, what Philip wanted to do since a long time. He theatrically rolled his eyes. “Stop reacting to him. You are just making an idiot out of yourself.” Meg's face turned a nice shade of tomato red and she sulkily crossed her arms, sitting down further away from the others. “Meg please.” Dwight begged her, trying to restore the peace. “Let’s all just get along okay?” He sent a pleading look into the round. Claudette nodded enthusiastically which seemed to encourage him once again.

 

“I'm sorry for asking, but would you mind answering Meg's question? We have all been quite curious about you.” He was surprised that the dark skinned woman was talking to him. Till now she never said much. But as nicely as she may have asked, he really didn't want them to know. Maybe if he just answered the general question without going into details they would be satisfied? It was worth a shot.

“The Entity punished me by sending me to you guys. Yeah, don't look so surprised, apparently I'm a survivor now.” Surprised was an understatement. They looked like a tree fell onto them, nearly making him chuckle. “Wha.. how?” Dwight choked out. He just shrugged, deciding to stay silent. “We know that survivors can turn into Killers, but Killers that turn into survivors? That's new” Jake added, sounding amused. Nea just grinned “So ya finally will know how it's like to be us.” She spat on the ground. “Don’t expect any help from me when ya struggle on the hook. Better get used it.” She threw him another shit-eating grin before walking over to the still sulking Meg.

 

Only Dwight and Claudette had some sympathy left for him, the latter going over to him and sitting down. “If you need any help just ask me. I might not be the best survivor but I will try my best to support you.” She warmly smiled at him. When he didn't answer, she seemed concerned, asking about his well-being. But he just couldn't answer her, because she reminded him so goddamn much of Sally. She was the survivor equivalent of her. It would have been creepy if he hadn't been missing Sally so much. So it just hurt him, seeing how similar they were. He was sure that they would get along great.

 

They were like lights in the darkness of the Entity's realm, showing care for everyone and doing their best to ease everybody's suffering, no matter to which side they belonged to. They didn't judge you by your actions nor your looks. They gave everybody a second chance, no matter how hated they were.

 

“I'm fine” was everything he could reply to her, his voice sounding choked. By the look she gave him she was as convinced of his answer as himself.

Not at all. But she didn't bother him. Instead she just nodded but stayed at his side. He was thankful. Maybe, with the right people at his side, it wasn't so bad here in the end. He might just come to like this side of the Entity's world. Maybe not everybody was fond of him but wasn't it the same for the Killers? But at least he found some people who wanted to help him. He felt calm. Somehow it was going to be alright. He was sure of that.


	4. First Trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is way shorter than I wanted it to be, but sadly I had no time to write more. Hope you still enjoy it, and thanks for reading and the kudos as always!  
> Also, I have no clue how generators work so I just wrote some random nonsense there.

Everything had been peaceful for once. That was, until thick waves of fog started to appear at the forest, surrounding the area where the Campfire was located. The survivors expressions began showing hints of fear, the further the fog progressed.

Philip saw Claudette tensing up next to him, but despite her obvious uneasiness, she continued smiling warmly.

“This is the usual beginning of a trial for us” she explained to him. He nodded. Soon, the trees were completely covered by fog, disappearing from their sights.

The first offshoot reached the Campfire, followed by others. Philip felt himself starting to panic, his airways seemingly tightening up.

It had been so peaceful before, lulling him into a false sense of security. But now it was time for the entity to destroy this.

He shuddered. Claudette, noticing his discomfort, stroked his shoulder, surprising him by this. He tried to calm down, but the thicker the fog got and the more he felt himself surrounded by it the harder it was. At least it wasn't dark. _But it can rip him apart here just as well._ No, he had to stay calm. His heart was beating too fast in his chest. Breathing became increasingly harder. And finally, the fog overtook them completely.

 

That Philip was scared was an understatement. He wasn’t scared, he was _terrified_. He felt the Entity around him, reaching for him, _tearing him apart_ , touching him. He couldn't see any of the survivors, being completely alone in this white world. If this was the beginning of every trial, how was he supposed to last? Before it even started he was already close to a panic attack. After an eternity, the fog started to decrease, leaving him standing in an area he knew. It was the MacMillian estate. He breathed in deeply. He could do this. He may have never fixed a generator but it couldn't be that hard. And he knew all of the hiding spots and how a Killer's mind worked. At least roughly. Somewhere, Philip hoped that it would be Sally, though Evan would be okay too. They were friends so they might spare him.

His eyes widened when he realized what that would mean. They would be forced to kill him, a friend of theirs. It can’t be one of them, under no circumstances. At least not Sally. It would break her heart if she had to chase him, injure him, kill him. And if she refused, the entity would gladly punish her. No, everybody else would be fine, but not one of them! He cursed silently. Now he prayed that it wouldn't be them. _At least not Sally please._

 

The sound of a generator being finished snapped him out of his thoughts, reminding him of what he had to do. He had spawned close to the small wood shack, and went inside of it, to see if there was a generator inside. He didn't find one, instead seeing the entrance to the basement. As his eyes fell onto the stairs, leading down to the basement, _to the entity_ , he felt his throat tighten once again. His hands were shaking and he felt nauseous. As fast as possible he went away from the shack, leaving that cursed place behind. He certainly did not want to be anywhere close to the entity, and this place was directly connected to it.

 

After some searching he was able to locate a generator. It was hidden behind a big rock and some trees were scattered around it. He knew that it was stupid to feel safe by this, as the Killers were able to see the outline of all generators but he couldn't help it. Already after a few seconds he encountered a problem: He had literally no clue how to fix it. He tried sticking his hands into it, yanking at the cables. It wasn’t that Philip was not experienced with machines, but these generators were completely unfamiliar to him. He wouldn't give up, even though everything he had done till now didn’t do shit. Maybe he had really lost some of his knowledge, after all these years.

 

Growing frustrated he continued, trying to connect the cables somehow. His face brightened up when he felt and heard the generator come to life. Now he just needed to continue this, and to not blow anything up. Philip grinned. Who said fixing generators was hard? This was literally a walk into the park.

 

Or so he thought. Just a moment later, it blew up into his face, leaving him frozen in shock. _I have to hide._ He observed the area, spotting a locker close to him. He went there, trying not to run despite his fear and hid in it. Running was a pretty bad idea as it generated noises and the Killers were able to see scratch marks from survivors who had ran. Another thing he never came to understand.

 

The only thing he could do now, was to hide and wait. But even after a few minutes had passed he heard no heartbeat, no steps, nothing. Deciding it was safe to go, he opened the locker doors and went back to the generator. This time he swore to be more careful.

 

The Killer, whoever it was, had probably been distracted when he blew it, but who knows what they were doing now. For all Philip knew they might even be close to him. No, this time there was no fucking up.

 

He grit his teeth and tried to stay focused on the task at hand. He soon noticed that the cables started to overheat sometimes, nearly burning his hands when he touched them. It happened whenever he needed to connect two separate cables. Despite the searing heat, which burned his hands in the progress, he couldn’t let go. When he blew up the generator earlier, he simply dropped them, not thinking about possible consequences. This time he managed to finish the generator, letting out a sigh of relief when it was done.

 

Just as he left he heard the sound of another generator. _Only_ _two_ _generators left and nobody_ _got_ _hooked. We can do this._ He hoped to meet up with somebody else soon though, as he hadn’t even seen anybody since the trial had started. In the distance he was able to make out the big steel building, considering his options. He could go over there and do the generator which was located inside the building. On the other hand, the area there was quite open, with Killers being able to spot him easily.

 

But maybe someone of the survivors was in the building? He remembered a chest being on the upper floor of it. The chances were slim, but he might just meet somebody from his team there. Survivors often went for the chests, as they contained useful items. He decided to give it a try, going to the building. He was careful, constantly looking around for any traces of a possible Killer. He ruled out Sally by now, as there were no sounds of her screeches echoing through the air. At least the entity granted him this bit of mercy.

 

Knowing it, he will probably meet her rather sooner than later though. A loud, pain-filled scream made him freeze in his tracks. Somebody got hooked. That was the only explanation for it. And just as he finished his thought, the aura of a survivor appeared on the other end of the area.

 

The scream had sounded like it emitted from a woman, so it had to be either Claudette, Meg or Nea. Or it might have just been a rather high-pitched male scream. Jake didn’t strike Philip as a person with such a girly scream, so it could be Dwight.

 

From the distance he wasn't able to make out any concrete features which would tell him who had been hooked. Should he really risk it and save whoever was the one on the hook? If the Killer was still close, then he might be the one to be hooked instead. And if he got hooked… _the entity will impale him again_. Sickness rouse inside of him. But his mind was set. He would save them. No matter what happened. He won't let the entity control his mind anymore. With his thoughts settled, he took off. This time to another direction, in order to save his teammate.

 

The outline of the person came closer and soon he was able to make out faint moaning and cries. A cold feeling crept into his gut. He knew this voice. When he was close enough to be able and identify the hooked person, his fears came true. It was Claudette.

 

Of course they had to get the most gentle, and the most innocent one. A thought formed in his mind. Maybe the others will accept him as their teammate if he saved her, or even as their friend. He would have saved her anyway, but making friends with the rest definitely won't hurt him. Especially when this trials would be a regular thing from now on. He really didn't want to be stuck on a hook, with nobody wanting to save him, leaving him to be consumed by the entity.

 

_Stuck with the entity,_ his mind whispered. There was no time for long thoughts now. The Killer was gone but who knows when they got back? It was now or never. Philip sprinted over to Claudette, ready to get her off the hook. He reached out his arms, trying to get her off, making one step further towards her in order to get a better grip.

 

She stared at him with wide eyes, her head turned towards him, instead to the blood-stained earth underneath her.

 

“PHILIP WATCH OUT!” Her warning came too late. His foot connected to the ground, his mouth opening comically at the sight of the bear trap. It snapped shut.

He really tried to be quiet, to not attract any attention, but _fuck it hurt_. His scream echoed through the area, loud enough to scare some crows away. With tears in his eyes he fell to the ground, trying to keep his pained moans down, even though everybody in the entire damn map probably heard his scream anyway.

 

It just hurt so goddamn much. One look at his leg and he felt like he had to puke. The sharp teeth of the trap were dug into the skin of his leg, turning it into a mess of blood and torn flesh. At one part, where the trap dug the deepest, he thought to see something white underneath all the torn flesh, making his nausea ten times worse.

 

He couldn't help but start crying because it was so bad and his leg was fucking ruined and it just _hurt._ Claudette wasn't much better off, the entity spawning around her, soon to be ready to impale her. And that was not even the worst thing.

A heartbeat.

Steady and faint but it got louder. Philip knew what this meant. A Killer was closing in. And of course it could be only one Killer. After all how many of them were in the possession of bear traps. Exactly. Only a single one.

_Evan._

 

Claudette was struggling against the entity now, and Philip would have given everything to be as far away from here as possible. He managed bring a little distance between himself and the hook right before the entity manifested itself, _even though he tore his leg even further, and the_ _pain was even greater,_ but it was still too close for comfort. At least it ignored him for now.

 

The heartbeat was pounding in his ears now. He stopped struggling, resigning to his fate. Evans silhouette appeared in front of him, nearing to him. Until he froze, just a few steps away from Philip. Despite being in enormous pain, Philip smiled and lifted his hand as a greeting. “Long time no see, Evan.”


	5. Making friends

Evan was still frozen, but seemed to have collected himself now. “You shouldn't be here” Evans deep voice rumbled, now in front of Philip. He winced, pain shooting up his leg. “You don't say. The Entity decided to punish me, by doing this to me” He gestured at himself. “By trapping you in my beartrap?” Evan sounded confused, his head slightly tilted to the side. Philip resisted the urge to smack his hand against his face. Hard. He forgot that Evan was a bit on the slow side sometimes. Not to be rude, Evan was damn smart most of the time, but occasionally he just had his blackouts.

 

“No… whatever, there is no time for this!” He had to save Claudette for fuck’s sake! She was already struggling on the hook since a while now and it couldn’t be too long until she would be killed. “HEY!” A voice shouted out. Both Phillip and Evan snapped their attention towards it. There stood Meg, showing Evan the middle finger. With this, she ran away. He immediately started the chase, leaving Philip and Claudette alone.

 

The situation would have been funny if Philips leg was not still being shredded to pieces by the trap. He already thought Claudette to be a lost case, when Dwight and Nea appeared behind them, the first one out of breath from sprinting. He gently lowered Claudette off the hook, the entity vanishing the moment he touched her. After that, together they managed to get Philips leg finally out of the trap. He limped after the others, with every step rakes of pain shooting up his leg. Finally they got some distance from the hook and hid behind a rock.

 

Nea bandaged Claudettes Torso up with a medkit she had found in a chest earlier. When she was finished she handed it over to Philip, her expression sour. “There ya go, don’t expect me to help ya with it though.” With that she turned around, taking off. “I’m sorry, Nea still has to get used to you, but it will be better!” Dwights crestfallen expression betrayed his positive words. “I will help you with the medkit if you don’t mind.” Philip didn’t. In fact he was grateful for the help, as he would have no clue what to do with it by himself. He was a Killer after all, not a survivor. The truth was, that he was dependent on this survivors, in order to be able to, well, survive.

 

Dwight reached into the medkit, producing some gauze and a disinfectant. It hurt when he poured it over his injured leg, and Philip barely dared to watch. He had seen enough already. It hurt even more when Dwight bandaged his leg. “There you go. It should be better any second now.” And surprisingly he was right. Even though Philip could barely walk just minutes before, he now was not even limping. The pain simply vanished, along with most of the wound. Some might call it a miracle, but those people didn’t know the rules in here. This was normal.

 

“Thank you.” Dwight just nodded, apparently satisfied that he was of help. “Where is the Jake guy by the way? I didn't see him around.” Dwight seemed surprised at the question for a moment, before quickly answering it. “He is probably busy sabotaging some hooks right now.” He smiled. “As long as the Killer doesn't get him, it will be a great advantage for us! Without hooks they can't sacrifice us, which makes their job a little bit harder. But for us, it is pretty amazing!” Dwight smiled happily, Philip not sure whether to be annoyed or amused. Dwight noticed his struggle as he immediately stopped smiling. “Oh… I didn't mean, I mean… I'm sorry if we gave you a hard time.” He scratched his head, looking downwards. Philip sighed. “It's fine. No hard feelings there, buddy. I understand why you did it, and I have to admit it's a pretty good strategy.” “You think so?” Philip gave him a smirk and a thumbs-up. “I sure do.”

 

It really had been a pain in the ass. Philip remembered his frustration just all too well, when he tried to hook somebody but couldn’t find any hooks. Especially when they managed to escape his grasp and ran away. To an area without hooks. He had flashbacks from that.

“Well, I guess we should work on a generator.” “You know how to do them?” Dwight asked surprised. “Yeah, I got the grasp of it. Kinda a bitch to repair them though.” The other man nodded, his expression sour. “I hate doing them, but we need them in order to escape.” “Let’s go and find one, we can complain later” Philip retorted.

 

Together they went on, looking out for signs of a generator. It didn’t take long for them in order to find one, surrounded by walls with two pallets which were leaning on the brick-walls. “This seems to be a good place. A lot of possibilities to escape.” Philip noted. “True, let’s hurry up. Meg already distracted him for quite a long time.” Just as Dwight said that, another generator lit up rather close to them. “This is the last one! We can do this!” Dwight shouted excitedly. Philip agreed, though he didn’t feel comfortable working so close to the finished one. Who knows if Evan was still chasing Meg? Maybe he had lost her a long time ago.

 

And just as he finished his thoughts, the heartbeat appeared, as if he had called for it. Both Dwight and him hid behind a wall, hoping he wouldn’t see them there. Their hope was soon destroyed, as Evan checked behind that wall first. Of course.

Evan seemed confused for a moment, as to why Philip was sitting behind the wall together with a survivor.

Next to a started generator.

 

Yeah, that was kinda weird.

 

In the end, Evan decided to ignore Philip and went after Dwight who already had taken off.

He could go after Evan and try to distract him or finish the generator in order to open the exit gates. _So do the generator or save Dwight?_

 

It really wasn’t a hard choice. In the end all of them will be able to escape. Somebody will definitely finish this generator, or maybe another one. But he had to save Dwight. Philip ran off, as fast as possible in order to catch up with Evan. He found both of them at different sides of a pallet, Dwight waiting for Evan to destroy it and Evan trying to trick Dwight into vaulting over it. “Evan!” The trappers head snapped over to look at Philip. “How about you leave him alone and I will tell you what happened?” He shook his head, his concentration back to Dwight. Philip cursed silently.

 

“Evan, I’m a survivor. If you want to win, you better hang me!” Now he had his full attention. “How? That can’t be possible.” He wasn’t able to make out Evan’s expression, due to the mask he was always wearing, but his voice had a ring of disbelieve to it.

 

“Sadly it is. I mean you see that I’m here, I’m helping them, what else could I be?” Evan hesitantly took a few steps into Philips direction. “Catch me if you can!” He shouted, running into a different direction, away from Dwight. He was surprised to see Evan actually chasing him. As great as this was, he didn’t consider in the fact that he had thoughtlessly sprinted exactly to an area without pallets. _Just great._

 

After a few minutes, Philip was able to see the red light emitting from the Killer, displaying his vicinity to the running man. Even though Evan was still unsure whether to hit his fellow Killer or not, his instincts won over him in the end. Philip had barely time in order to braze himself for the hit. His back got sliced up, blood splattering into the air, and onto himself. He couldn’t suppress the pained scream following the painful injury.

 

How the heck were survivors even able to run after being hit? He wanted nothing more than to just lie down and rest his aching body. But he was forced to continue running, so he wouldn’t get hooked. Why had he even done this? He was scared. He didn’t want to be fucking hooked. _Back to the Entity we go_.

 

He finally encountered a pallet, losing no time to slam it down. He caught his breath, waiting for Evans move. But the other one simply stared at him. “Are you really a survivor?” Philip nodded. “It was a punishment from the entity. Does that answer your question?”

“But why? Why would it do this?” Philip shrugged. “I fucked up and the survivors got the better of me. Guess it was really displeased with me.”

“That means I have to kill you, doesn’t it?” He sounded somewhat unhappy. Understandable. Philip wasn’t feeling all that great either, considering he would probably get sacrificed to the entity in a matter of minutes.

“That’s how it goes.”

“You know I don’t want to do this.” He sounded resigned.

“Of course. No hard feelings from my side.” Philip smiled, but it felt strained.

 

The chase started again. And he wouldn’t be able to last much longer. He ran in circles around Evan, distracting him shortly with this. Evan hit the air, giving the other man time to get some distance. He saw a pallet, but as he closed in to it, Philip noticed the trap lying in the middle of the passage. He decided to go around it, waiting at the other end of it.

 

He really didn’t think that this would work. Surely Evan wouldn’t be stupid enough to step into his own trap. He will just go around the long way and finish him off. He felt nervosity rising in him, the closer Evan got. This was a bad idea, wasn’t it?

 

Maybe if he ran away now, he could still escape somehow. But his legs were locked in place. He could only watch as Evan got closer and closer and- stopped. The sound of a trap snapping shut rung through the air. Evan looked down at his leg, obviously confused. Philip just stared. He knew that the other one had his special moments sometimes, but really? He snorted. Evan shot him an evil glare.

Oups.

_Time to hit the road_.

And the chase began anew.

 

They still hadn’t done the last generator. What was taking them so long? Philip saw the structure of the shack appearing in the distance. Fuck. He had to change his route or otherwise he would get too close to the basement. Not a very comforting thought. But there were just no goddamn pallets around! Only stones, trees and walls. For the first time he actually wished that he was in Autohaven.

 

At least he could smack quite a big number of pallets into Evan’s face. But here? There was barely anything, except a few windows in the walls. He managed to run around a tree, luring Evan to hit him, but taking a sharp turn into the other direction so he missed. Back to the big building he goes. He ran to the window leading into it, freezing on the spot as he saw the trap placed in front of it. _Maybe he could still run back?_ Nope.

Evan was blocking the way, looking more menacing than ever in the dim moonlight with his bloodied, shimmering cleaver.

 

“How about a time-out?” Philip managed to choke out, his mouth dry, before he got hit by the deadly weapon. Evan wasted no time for words, immediately transporting him in direction of a hook.

 

Maybe he was lucky. Maybe Jake had managed to sabotage all of them and he could get free. Maybe one of them will distract Evan. Maybe the entity just died and he would be back together with his family, and everybody would be free and happy. Fuck, he wanted to hope. At least until a hook appeared in front of him. He tried to struggle as much as possible, but Evan apparently just wanted to finish the job. He nearly threw him onto the hook, forcing Philip to let out an agony filled, deafening scream. The trapper didn’t even bother with setting down a trap in front of him, instead just leaving him to his fate.

 

In all honesty, Philip would have preferred the other one to stay with him, instead of leaving him alone here. _With it._ Nausea took over him, his vision getting blurry. Was he crying? He felt sick. _He was fucking terrified._ More tears streamed down his face.

 

_Please, somebody, please help me, please get me off this hook, get me off getmeoffgetmeoff!_ His thoughts were one single big mess. He sobbed. He was pathetic and he knew it. But he didn’t want this again. The torture. Being ripped apart. Why was he so stupid and had to save Dwight? They will just let him die here anyway. He was nothing but a bother, a Killer nonetheless. There was no reason for them to rescue him. He weakly lifted his head a bit, when he saw the lights of a generator flashing up. They managed to do it. If he had been in any other position than this, it would have filled his heart with hope, to escape, to survive his first trial. But he was hooked, and nobody was coming to save him.

 

_They will leave me here, together with the entity._ To rot in this place. What else did he deserve in their eyes after all? He killed them, killed their friends. He closed his eyes, awaiting his fate. He would have struggled but he had no strength left. It didn't matter. _The entity will just rip me apart, to tiny little pieces_. Tears were falling down to the ground, mixing with the blood underneath his feet.

 

He heard footsteps. Arms were reaching up onto his sides. Confused, he opened his eyes. “Wha-” They cut him off with a shooing motion. It was Meg. The one who hated him so much. She managed to get him off the hook, motioning him to follow her. He was still dizzy, and confused. He didn’t understand her actions. Why would she save him? She hated him for Christ’s sake!

 

They hid close to a wall, right behind a big tree. “Why?” She rolled her eyes. “I didn't do it cause I wanted to save you, dipshit. We just can't afford to lose you that fast.” “But you already finished the generators! You could have escaped!” Meg turned away, but Philip saw her face reddening.

 

“Whatever. I saved you, so you better be thankful instead of questioning me!” “Thank you.” His voice was quiet, weak. He disliked it. _Did she see me cry?_ It shouldn't bother him that much, but it did. He felt useless, useless and weak. Just why was everybody so strong, but he had to be a pathetic, scared, train-wreck.

 

“There we go. I don't have a medkit to patch you up, so you gotta be careful.”

If Meg saw his tears, then she did a good job at not bringing it up. He felt relieved. He didn’t want her of all people to see him in such a weak state. He was grateful for the rescue, but her seeing him hooked, saving him, was enough.

 

Together they went in direction of the exit gate. At least Philip assumed it was that direction, as he was just following Meg for now. She was right, after a few minutes of walking he was able to make out the red lights of the exit gate. There was no sight of Evan around. He walked into the exit gate but stopped when he noticed that Meg wasn’t following him.

“I will wait for the others. Go ahead if you want to, I don’t care.”

“I won’t go out there alone” he answered. “Suit yourself.”

 

They waited and waited. Nobody was coming. Meg was getting increasingly nervous the more time passed, now even resorting to biting her nails. “Something is wrong. They should be here already.”

 

Then they heard the scream. “Dwight!” They both shouted in unison. “We have to save him!” Again in unison. “Stop imitating me” Meg shouted angrily. “I’m not, you were imitating me!” “No, you!” Philip crossed his arms. “Nope, it was you!” Meg ruffled her hair. “There is no time for that now! We gotta save him!”

Together they ran in direction of the scream. “Uh, where exactly came it from again?” Philip asked awkwardly, after they had been running for a few seconds. “Just follow me” Meg retorted, a smug tone in her voice.

 

They were ready to save Dwight. No matter what the cost was. Philip had to save him and Meg would not let her dear friend die. Together they were an unstoppable team. Their expressions were solemn, their minds set on one goal. They would not let a friend of theirs die.

 

“So, uh, you sure that it came from here? Because there aren’t even hooks.” Meg shot him a glare. “Well, maybe it was from a bit over there.” She dragged him forward together with her.

Philip saw a few rocks and trees. No hooks. No Dwight.

 

“Nope. Sure, that you even heard the scream?” Meg stomped one foot onto the ground. “Well, if you know everything better then just lead the way!” Philip nodded. It was funny to see how easy Meg’s face turned red. “Let’s go to that direction:” He pointed towards East. Or what he assumed to be East. At least the big building was there and the scream seemed to have emitted from somewhere over there.

 

Or not.

 

“I can’t see Dwight anywhere around here, my dear leader.” She streched the word “leader”, making clear how less she thought of him. “Hm.” “What’s with hm? How is hm going to help us, huh?” Her voice was definitely annoying. Probably because she was screaming into his ear. Philip wished he could be a Killer again right now. Just for a minute. That should be enough time to hook her. “Maybe somebody saved him already.” She thought about it for a minute “Might be. I mean we crossed like half of the map and he was nowhere. We should head back to the exit gate.”

 

Just that nobody was at the exit gate. “Other one?” They ran across the area again, finally reaching their destination. From the distance they already saw the shape of a few people standing over there. Relieve washed over them. Philip was mostly happy that he would get away from Meg soon, who was constantly trying to get him to stumble, by putting her leg in front of his. _She was really childish_ , he thought, as he threw a some dirt at her, which she professionally dodged.

 

He held still for a moment, when he heard a faint heartbeat. He opened his mouth to warn Meg, but stopped when he saw that she was gone. One look towards the exit gate told him where she was. “Damn you.” He mumbled and sprinted to the rest of the group, not too keen on staying any longer. Philip hoped Evan was okay though, as he didn't get any kills and he knew how cruel an unsatisfied Entity could be.

Oh, he knew it all too well.

  



	6. Dread

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry for the late update, couldn't upload due to vacation and other reasons ^^ Updates might be slower in the future as I’m lacking motivation to write right now. Anyways, I have a question, does anybody want to have pairings in this fic? Please tell me if yes :) Thanks for reading and for the kudos!  
> Fun fact: I started this fic as a troll ship between Wraith and Hillbilly. I have no clue how it developed into this xD

Loud heartbeat rang in Philip’s ears during he raced to the exit gate. The moment he reached it, the heartbeat started to decrease, soon fading completely. Philip thought he saw Evan walking away in the distance, but when he blinked, the figure was gone. He stood there for a moment until Meg's voice shook him out of his trance. “You want to stay with your Killer friend or come with us? I mean, I would gladly leave you here, if that's your wish.” She shrugged and walked into the fog. He quickly followed her. “I think I will pass.” She grinned. “Don’t think it's over just with one trial. You were lucky I was close to you. Better be careful next time.”

He just nodded, even though she probably couldn't see it. The fog surrounded both of them, Meg vanishing from his vision. Somehow it got darker. Philip was confused. It wasn’t like this before, was it? The fog was completely vanished now, but instead of being greeted by the campfire, Philip saw only darkness. _Again._ He was shivering, his eyes widened in fright. This can’t be happening. No. Not again. He had been through this already. _It will rip me apart again._ “No” he whispered.

  


_Wraith. Tell me, how do you like your new role? I hope it is to your satisfaction._

The voice was without a body, surrounding him, coming from everywhere. He turned around, trying to see anything. Nothing but darkness. Suddenly one of it’s appendages stabbed through his formerly injured leg. He cried out, falling to the ground, or whatever it could be called. _Answer!_ It said sharply. Philip felt tears stinging in his eyes. “It’s quite nice. The hooks are annoying, and the Killer’s are a bit rude, but other than that I would give it five stars.” He mocked it’s question, even daring to grin at it. He would come to regret this. _It seems like I have been too nice to you._ It sounded gleeful. He saw one of it’s appendages coming at him, but it was too late. It wrapped itself around his neck, lifting him up, choking him. He tried to breathe, desperately clawing at the black thing around his neck. His head felt like it would explode, his lungs screaming for air. He kicked out, tried to get away, but it was useless. _It will happen agai_ _n._ His trashing achieved nothing, only encouraging the Entity to choke him tighter. His vision started to fade, turning into blackness.

 

He felt defeated, all energy leaving his body. He stopped fighting back. It only amused the Entity, so why even bother? His body went limb, just a toy for the entity to play with.

_I really, really hate darkness._

Maybe this time he would actually die. Maybe it was for the better. He had hurt so many people, done so many bad things. Why should he get any second chances, as fucked up as they might be?

  


He winced, when he felt something at his cheek. It burnt for some reason. It felt like somebody was slapping him, but the entity wasn’t doing anything. Except choking him of course. He thought he could hear something. “...ke… p... “ _What?_ “... -ake…. ...p” Was this another one of the entity’s games? “WAKE UP!” A hard slap startled him, and he rose up with a shock, his eyes wide. “What?” Meg kneeled in front of his torso, a look of concern on her face. “Finally. You came back and just collapsed for some reason.” “What?” He mumbled again. “Must have been one hell of a nightmare. You were trashing around like crazy!” That snapped him out of his blank state completely. His hand went to his throat, but he couldn’t feel anything there. It didn’t hurt either. One look at his leg told him the same. No wound. No blood. Nothing. “Yeah, it was pretty awful” he answered weakly. “Damn. Don’t scare me like that again.” “You were worried?” He smiled, despite the shock he was still feeling. Meg’s face immediately turned beet red again and she left him, mumbling something inaudible.

  


_What was that?_ Had it really been just a dream? It would make sense, considering how much the entity had affected him. But then again, he doubted it. His head started to hurt. He should just leave it at that for now, maybe he would get answers later on. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but he wasn’t famous for making the best decisions. Mostly they were quite awful. And a big reason as to why he even landed in this place. He stood up fully, gaining balance. He felt dizzy. Either an after-effect from sleeping or a greeting from the Entity.

Everybody was gathered around the campfire again. At least some normality. He sat down next to Dwight.

 

“How long do this kind of breaks normally take?” Philip asked. “It depends. I guess if the entity is in a good mood it lets us in peace for a longer time, otherwise you might find yourself right into another trial.” Jake answered him. Philip was surprised, as Jake didn't seem to talk much till now. Comparing him to the others, he was the only one who barely made contact with Philip yet.

Meg seemed to have accepted him for now, but he wasn’t sure whether she was all comfortable around him. Claudette was friendly towards him, but then again she was friendly to pretty much everyone. She was sitting to his left, trying to be of help, if needed. “Do wounds always heal automatically when you escape?”

 

He had wondered about that, since all of his wounds were gone. It would make sense, considering that none of the survivors he had encountered till now were hurt or injured. Most importantly, it would make the trial rather one-sided if survivors were to be kept in their injured state. Jake and Claudette nodded.

 

“Sorry that I made the trials harder for you.” Jake was grinning, so Philip doubted the honesty of his apologise just slightly. He still accepted it. “Well, now that we are on the same side, the sabotaging is actually pretty good for me.” “The Killers aren’t sparing you?” He saw the surprise in everybody’s eyes. Well… everybody except Meg and Dwight.

  


“Nope, I even had to rescue our little Wraith from a hook earlier on.” “I'm taller than you.” Philip muttered. “And he distracted the trapper in order to save me.” Dwight piped up. “Thank you for that, and I’m sorry that you got hooked.” Shame was evident in his voice. “I should have been more careful, to not get found. You were hooked because of me.” Were those tears in his eyes? Philip felt awkward. “Hey, I did it because I wanted to. And he found both of us. Just don’t worry about it, it’s not like I got killed.” “Yeah, because I saved you.” Did she have to be so smug about that? He sighed. “Sadly.” “Prefer being sacrificed next time?” She knew the answer to that already. “No. And stop grinning.” Her grin widened until it looked scary. “You look like that Doctor guy when you smile like that.” He remarked. She immediately stopped, looking indignant. “My smile doesn’t look that horrible.” “Are you sure about that?” He teased.

 

“I will interrupt your banter for a moment if you guys don’t mind, but you were a Killer once. Why would the trapper want to sacrifice you?” Jake asked, disbelieve in his voice. They all looked at him. He decided to look at Dwight.

 

“Uh…I totally forgot to ask, but what happened to you Dwight? Meg and me heard your scream.” “I stepped into a trap.” Dwight laughed awkwardly while Meg just groaned. “To my defense, it was rather well hidden in the grass.”

“That’s why you should avoid the grass as much as possible when we go up against the trapper” Meg retorted. “I did! Most of the time at least.” Meg raised an eyebrow “So that’s why you stepped into a trap which was lying in the grass?”

“Uh…” Nea rolled her eyes at his response, but she was smiling. “Well, me and Jake helped him. If you wanna know the exact details, Jake got him free of the trap and I distracted the Killer. Wasn’t too hard, he seemed pretty unfocused.” Philip shifted a bit. “Oh well, it made it easy for us to escape.” She grinned confidently.

  


“Yeah, you two really helped me out there. Claudette healed me at the exit gate, and after that we pretty much just waited for you and Meg.”

“We were searching for you, but we couldn’t find you.” Meg said. “I’m sorry for worrying you guys” Dwight fiddled with his fingers.. “It’s fine, you didn’t worry us at all!” Meg hurried to add. “Oh, so you weren’t concerned about me?” Meg was now helplessly stammering as Dwight started laughing. “I’m fine Meg, I’m sorry.” She just puffed her cheeks.

  


“So, why would they attack you? And no distractions this time.” Jake inquired. Philip sighed. “Because I’m a survivor now and as such they have to kill me. Just because I was a Killer once, and that still feels weird to say, doesn’t mean that they can just ignore me. Killers hunt survivors and sacrifice them. It’s a simple, yet cruel concept. They, or at least the trapper didn’t want to hook me, but he has no big choice in that matter. Unless he wants to share a fate similar to mine that is, and I know for a fact that he was already punished enough for disobeying the Entity." That satisfied Jake, as he stopped asking.

 

Man, the Entity sure is weird.” Nea spoke up. “How so?” Claudette asked. “I mean, sure it kind of sucks to be a survivor for him I guess, but that’s still a dumb punishment.” Philip looked at her curiously “Why do you think that?” “I mean come on, all of us are okay with ya. Even me, though I still prefer ya on a hook. If it wanted to properly punish you, it shoulda just sent ya to a group of survivors who completely hate your guts. As for us, I’m sure at least Dwight and Claudette would give their best to save ya, whenever ya are in trouble.” She shrugged. “So yeah, seemed like a stupid punishment.”

 

Everybody went silent. “Maybe it thought that we hate him?” Dwight said thoughtfully. Meg crossed her arms, looking up to the sky. “We kind of did. Except our two goody-two shoes Claudette and Dwight that is. But now all of us are kinda okay with him.”

 

Philip stared into the fire. What Nea had said made sense. The Entity might think that they hated him, and that’s why he got put together with this particular group. Now that he thought about it, he just realised how lucky he was. If the Entity had decided to put him together with any other group, who knows what would have happened to him. Instead he found friends, people who would save him, despite everything he had done to them. He had been damn lucky.

 

Silence took over the area, the only sounds heard being the cracking of the fire, and the croaking of crows in the distance.

 

They spent minutes, maybe hours at the campfire. Nobody spoke. It was like some sort of trance took hold of them, making them drowsy and tired. Although none of them were able to sleep, it felt like their energy was replenished.

 

Here and there, the other survivors glanced discreetly at him. He knew that they were still confused about his appearance at the campfire, about his new role as a survivor. He was feeling the same after all. He really shouldn’t be here. But then again, the Entity didn’t care about that. And it really could have been way worse.

 _So much worse._ If he had been put together with a group of survivors who wanted to kill him, _torture him_ would the Entity have allowed it? Definitely.Everything to make life harder for him. And even if not, they could have just left him behind every time. Sacrificed every single trial. Until the last bit of hope had been crushed, leaving nothing left of him.

 

He was trembling. He lifted his hand a bit, barely able to keep it still. He balled it to a fist, forcing his body to calm down. None of that would happen. Not as long as he was able to stay with them. As long as the Entity thought them to hate him it would be alright. Despite his best effort to stay calm, he found sickness rising inside of him. _What if it moved him?_

 

 _Hey Philip, how about a fast change in your group? You like them? Well too bad, I got a better one. They really hate you and they can’t wait to kill you. When I think about it, killing alone is so boring isn’t it? How about we will rip you apart again? You don’t need your limbs anyway, do you?_ He pressed his hands against his head, groaning silently. _Shut up!_ None, of that would happen. He was safe here. He lowered his hands, looking at the others.

Nobody had been paying attention to his small breakdown. He sat upright, straightening himself. And flinched when Meg’s voice interrupted the silence.

 

“Say… you did get smaller though, didn’t you?” Meg finally spoke up. “Do you mean me?” It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying. But it was a distraction from his growingly depressing thoughts. And right now every distraction was welcome.

 

“Of course. But when you were a Killer you had like this inhuman height all of them have, but now you are what? Around six feet two?” Philip looked down at himself, even standing up from his position.

 

For a moment he thought that he would faint, but then his strength was back. The distance from his head to the ground certainly seemed smaller. Absently he noted the yellow and brown leaves littering the ground. He never paid attention to them. “I didn’t even notice that.” He remarked. “You would think, one knew their body.” Nea said sardonically.

 

“There was no time for me to check!” Philip defended himself. “And I’m still taller than all of you!” “Actually, you are the same height as me” Jake answered. “Okay, nearly taller than all of you. Is my height really that important right now?”

“No. Your face-paint, or whatever that is, starts going off too.” He promptly reached up at his face. “Everything?” Meg shook her head. “Just a little bit. Seems like you are getting more human to me. I mean except the whole weird bandage clothing you still got going on.”

“Sorry for not suiting your fashion sense.” She smirked. “It’s fine, not everybody can be a fashion expert like me.” “How generous of you. Can we stop talking about my appearance now?” Meg nodded.

 

Philip felt bewildered. He wasn’t sure how to feel about his height and the rest. Now that he thought about it, he should have noticed way earlier that he had gotten smaller. At least at the point where he got hooked. He was glad for having his normal height back in a way, but the height had also been menacing to others, and now that he was just a normal survivor, it might have at least held off anybody who hadn’t taken a liking to him. Especially if he had to change groups. He grit his teeth. _Stop thinking of that!_ He needed a distraction.

 

“You guys have nothing to do around here, huh?” Not the best question, and he didn’t care about the answer, but it worked. His thoughts stopped revolving around a certain possibility. _A certain_ _ **impossible**_ _possibility._

 

They shook their heads. “Do you ever meet other people?” “Sometimes” Jake answered. “There are trials where we aren’t together, but with different people. But those are rare.” _Hopefully they are._ “Isn’t it boring? To spend all the time around one campfire, just waiting for a new trial to start?” “Of course it is. But we don’t have a big choice in that matter.” Jake’s voice sounded indifferent at the last sentence.

 

“How is it for the Killers?” Dwight suddenly asked him. Philip was surprised for a moment, not sure what to answer. “It’s similar I guess. We don’t have a campfire where we wait around and sing campfire songs, but we have our own areas. Each Killer has it’s representative area as a resting place. We can switch though, in order to talk to the other Killers, which I mostly did.” “That sounds kinda cool” Meg stated. “I guess. It get’s boring too after a while. And I dislike my own area, so I mostly stuck to either Sally’s or Evan’s.”

 

“Who are Sally and Evan?” Dwight asked, curiosity in his voice. Philip sighed. Why did he had to mention them. Damn it. “Friends of mine. Sally is the one you call Nurse and Evan is the Trapper.” “Oh.”

Meg and Nea looked like somebody had punched them into the face after he finished his sentence. And the rest weren’t any better. Why was everybody so surprised? Jake noticed his confusion. “To be honest, we didn’t think that the Killer’s had names. Unless we heard yours. Dwight was the only one who thought of you guys to be human, the rest of us considered you to be monsters. Claudette was more on Dwight’s side though.” “Thanks for the compliment” Philip retorted sarcastically.

  


They were interrupted when fog started to cloud their visions once more. “Come on, just two more minutes break-time” he groaned. Just like the former time, the fog soon surrounded them completely. Which did not help his anxiety at all. Especially considering what had happened earlier when he escaped the trial. He really hated the Entity. The only good thing about this ordeal was that it was over in a minute. Had it lasted much longer than that, he probably would have suffered a mental breakdown. If that didn’t happen already. It certainly would explain his pathetic behavior.

  
Wait… Nevermind his relief over the fog being gone. He would prefer the fog over _that._ Of fucking course. It had to be the Coldwind farm, didn’t it? And exactly the same area, where the survivors had gotten the best of him. Just amazing. The Entity really liked showing him the middle finger. Annoyed, he went to check out if there were any generators around. And stopped when he heard the sound of a chainsaw in the distance. Philip groaned. This got better and better. At least it wasn’t Sally. Everybody was fine, as long as it wasn’t her. But he really, definitely did not want to get a chainsaw to the face. Time to hurry up on those generators.

In the end he went into the rural house, going upstairs. He searched through the chest, removing the green rotten layer of fabric. Underneath it was a flashlight. Time to flash the Hillbilly. Or Billy like Sally called him.

  


Oh, who was he kidding. There was no time to try and shine a flashlight into somebody’s eyes when they sprinted at you with full speed, wielding a fucking chainsaw! Even if he somehow, through some miracle managed to blind him, he would still get chainsawed a second later.

And he didn’t want to risk flashing the Killer while being on the opposite site of a pallet. Survivors had tried doing that a lot against him. In the end, he just destroyed the pallet and got them because they wasted so much time with trying to blind him, instead of bringing distance between themselves and him.

That flashlight was useless. He put it back into the chest. Sourly he started repairing the generator. Nobody had finished one yet. Last trial at this point they already had done one. He forgot to ask them how they did it so fast, but they had probably worked together. The chainsaw started up again, roaring for about two seconds before it stopped. A short moment of silence, until he heard it once more. This went on for the entire time he was working on the generator. Seemed like somebody was giving the Killer some troubles. Better for him, as he was able to finish the generator. Now he only had to get the hell out of the house. It was too dangerous to stay there any second longer.

  


The game of whoever was being chased continued, the chainsaw roaring to life, just to be stopped a second later, and then it began anew. Whoever was distracting the Killer did a damn good job at that. His guess was on either Meg or Nea, as those were the ones who seemed to be quite good at outsmarting Killers. Probably Meg though, as Nea appeared to be the stealthy type.

  


Loud cursing and the sound of an explosion interrupted his thoughts. The origin of the source turned out to be Dwight, who worked on a generator, face flushing red when he saw Philip watching him with a raised eyebrow. “Need help?” “I would appreciate it” he mumbled. With Philips assistance they were able to complete the generator without any further troubles. “Do you know who is being chased?” The answer didn’t really matter, but his curiosity got the best of him. Dwight shook his head. “Never even got a chance to see the Killer this trial. I guess it's Meg though, she is pretty good at tricking out the Hillbilly.” “I thought so. She distracted the Trapper too last round.” Dwight smiled. “She is pretty cocky. She likes to buy us time, and she manages to avoid getting caught most of the time, in addition to that.” “She is cocky, alright.” Philip said amused. “Well, we should get moving, the faster we are finished, the easier it is for Meg.” Philip didn’t disagree to that. He owed it to Meg to give his best.

  


Both of them flinched when the sound of the chainsaw came dangerously close to them. But no heartbeat appeared and he was gone the next second. They managed to finish another generator, though there were no signs of anybody else. Philip decided to speak up about what had bugged him the entire time. “Weird that we are the only ones who did generators up until now.”

 

“Maybe the Killer was focused on them? Or he interrupted them, while they were doing a generator.” Dwight was just as clueless as Philip about the situation.

As if he had called for it, another generator lit up in the distance. “Seems like we were worried for nothing” Dwight said smiling. “Apparently so. Just one more and we will be outta here!” Philip could barely contain the excitement in his voice. This time everything was perfect. No hooked people, no Evan, no being hooked. Maybe they would escape without any major difficulties. At least he hoped so.

  


He should have known that nothing was easy in the Entity's realm.

A few minutes after moving on to another generator, a heartbeat appeared. They hadn't started the gen yet, but he still lingered in the area, searching for any kind of traces.

Ice-cold realization dawned upon Philip. _He knows_ _that_ _we are here._ The entity. It told him. Not their exact position, but that they were somewhere in this area. He shifted closer to the tree he was hiding behind, constantly walking around it whenever Hillbilly, _or should I call him Billy?_ moved. This way he stayed out of his sight.

 

Good for him that the tree was big enough to hide his shape. Dwight in the meantime, had immediately hid inside of a closet, a thing his fellow survivors liked to mock him about.

He talked about it with Philip, during they were searching for the next generator. Just like the rest, Philip didn’t agree with Dwight’s love for hiding inside of closets in order to avoid being found. He tried to argue with Dwight that closets are quite suspicious, especially when a Killer knew that somebody was in the area, but he would have none of that. Neither did he want to listen about Philips reasonable argument, that closets are, as a matter of fact, a closed space. Means it's hard for him to escape, should any Killer decide to take a peek into it. And with hard he meant impossible. They had no further time to continue their argumentation (which was rather one-sided, Philip being the main speaker) and hid in their own spots.

 

Now, that he was pressed against the tree, Billy moving closer and closer to it, Philip started to reconsider his idea. He wished he could switch places with Dwight right now. It was getting increasingly harder to stay out of the Killer's sight, him being way too close to the tree. He nearly slipped, barely finding his footing again. His own heartbeat matched the Killer's one in intensity. The wood of the tree cut into his palms, leaving faint scratches. _Just go away!_ He had covered the entire area by now. It was only a matter of seconds until he would be found.

  


Philip turned his head towards the closet when the doors opened with a creak. “ _No”_ , he whispered silently. The Hillbilly immediately snapped his attention away from the tree Philip had been hiding behind, to the person standing in front of the closet. He roared up his chainsaw, Dwight running away, his pale face being the only indicator of the enormous fear he was feeling.

 

Philip wanted to curse himself. He should have known that Dwight would do something reckless like that. He wasn't one to talk, sure, considering he was the one doing a distraction maneuver the last time, but still. Dwight probably wanted to repay the favor, or he was simply being the nice guy. It didn't matter. He left his position behind the tree, running with all his might to catch up with the other one. The sound of the chainsaw and a loud scream following it, told him that he was too late.

Dwight was down.


End file.
